Two good starting points for choosing a decorator are to 1) find out what their credentials are: did they graduate from an a nationally accredited interior design program, and are they at least eligible to take the NCIDQ exam by their education and 2) have a look at their portfolio of existing work to see if it's something you like. That said there are talented (and famous, for that matter) decorators out there with no formal training in design whatsoever. But getting somebody who was at least exposed to working within the context of a formal design process and having to take and pass technical courses is going to weed out the people who can just "make something pretty" in the same way you could. But seeing the portfolio of their work to see if it jibes with your aesthetic is important, too. I went to school with some fairly competent and talented people whose work I thought was hideous. But it was well-done for what it was. There are lots of politics and battles in the design industry over credentialing because in some states anyone can hang up a sign calling themselves a designer, whereas in other states "designer" has some very specific connotations of professional standards. "Decorator" is a more informal title, and does not carry any connotation of educational background. But many Decorators have cross-training in other visual or historical fields. Many trained interior designers essentially work as decorators (+), because that is what residential projects are usually about. The big problem that I see with working with a decorator who is essentially a talented amateur that hung a shingle after making their own house look nice is that their design process is probably not much different than yours, and their approach may only be as systematic or as scattered as your own approach, and that may not be giving you much bang for your buck, it's more like shopping with a girlfriend with good taste and Then having to Pay her for it. I think it's this type of relationship that often annoys people and gives the title "interior designer" a bad name. The complaint that a designer was a flighty person who didn't listen to you and seemed to pull random ideas out of their a---s and expect you to pay for it is a valid complaint. That's what some of them are like, and a client deserves better. I went to school with some real slackers who kind of scraped by and probably don't remember a whole lot of the technical course work or history, (and as far as I can tell a lot of them aren't working in the field), but at the very least I hope Something of the education stuck and if their work corresponds with your tastes you would end up with somebody who at least had some background beyond their own house.

I'm so sorry you're going through this. My sister is bipolar type 2, with rapid cycling, and I watched my mother try to deal with her. (Fortunately or unfortunately, my sister self-medicated with food, not drugs or alcohol, so she wasn't a physical danger to herself.) I *so* understand that you're afraid of alienating your daughter, and are worried that she'll leave and you won't see her. The only thing I know for sure is that nothing good ever comes out of acting from fear. I'll tell you my bias. I watched my mother do much the same with my sister as you're doing with your daughter. My mother's main concerns were keeping my sister relatively calm and not letting her break their relationship. My mother did things she *knew* were counter-productive, because she was afraid of losing my sister. She "helped" my sister in school - to the point of actually doing many of her assignments. She wrote absence excuse notes for fake illnesses. She provided my sister with spending money. (I, OTOH, started working at age 15.) Later on, my mother gave my sister a place to live, rent-free. She paid for everything - clothes, food, utilities, car insurance, gas ... you name it. My sister got a good education and could get good jobs, but when she got them, she spent all her money on spending sprees. (In one week in 1986, she bought a $20,000 car, a $2,000 exercise machine, $1,500 of stereo equipment, $1,000 in CD's, and probably a whole lot more stuff I never knew about.) My mother eventually gave her money, because she didn't want to lose my sister. (By that time, it wasn't a physical loss she was afraid of, but my sister would go into her room and completely ignore my mother if she didn't like what my mom was doing.) When her illness cycled, my sister would rage at my mother. (In type 2 bipolar, the manic cycle is more a matter of anger than what we think of as mania.) My sister would throw books and scream and make life miserable, but my mother took it, because she was afraid my sister would stop talking to her. My sister lived with my mom until the day my mother died. One of the last things my mother said to me was, "Take care of your sister." Well, I loved my mother enormously, but *THAT* wasn't going to happen, at least not the way my mother was doing it. Once my sister lost her safety net and had to be responsible for herself, she managed to do it. My sister is still ill, on multiple medications, and is hospitalized from time to time, but now she's much more responsible. She holds down a full-time job, something she hadn't done for more than a couple months at a time before my mom died. My sister will tell you that what my mother did for her, though it was done out of love (and fear), made her illness worse, not better. She'll also tell you that while she loved our mother, she never respected her. I don't know if any of this strikes a chord, but there it is. I can't say what you should do, because I'm not in your situation. I just want to urge you to consider that you're not just hurting yourself by placating your daughter to the extent you've described, you're actually hurting her. I keep thinking of that old adage about the definition of madness being doing the same thing over and over and expecting the results to change. I think you know you have to do something different, because you don't like the results you're getting. As to why bipolar illness (and ADHD, and all the rest) are diagnosed so often today, who knows? Personally, I think they're real illnesses and have been around forever, but they're also over-diagnosed. You don't need to solve the societal problem, though, you just need to figure out what's happening with your daughter. If she *does* have bipolar illness, then it doesn't really matter if 10,000 other people have been misdiagnosed with bipolar. And if she doesn't have it, many of the things you need to do are still the same. (BTW, I agree with Alisande that you're right to look at the diagnosis with a critical eye, and ask for a second opinion.) I'm sorry if anything I've written makes it sound like there's anything remotely simple about the problems you're facing. I wish you the best of luck.

Rules are meant to be broken. Lol. If there is a new mantel i like the width. Smaller will encourage more accents on mantel. But all in the eye of the beholder. Art is personal. I like the clean look of this art. A new fixture would also enhance the room But just offering other options.

We'd love to have an interior designer on speed dial before deciding exactly where and how to hang that new wall art we bought on a whim so we don't make any major mistakes. But until we win the lottery, we'll have to settle for trusting our gut—and taking plenty of interior design tips where we can get them. We've compiled some secrets straight from the pros to help you with all your decorating needs.